Paola Tartakoff (bio)
Assistant Professor of History
and Jewish Studies
Ph.D., Columbia University
B.A., Harvard College
14 College Ave
Miller Hall
(732) 932-4021
Miller Hall
(732) 932-4021
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests lie in the religious and cultural history of medieval Europe. In particular, I study Jewish-Christian relations in medieval Iberia with a focus on Jewish conversion and the inquisitorial prosecution of Jews and converts.
COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT
The Development of Europe, Part I
Jewish Identities in the Medieval Mediterranean
BOOKS
Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Middle Ages Series, 2012).
ARTICLES
- “Of Purity, Piety, and Plunder: Reflections on Medieval Jewish Converts and Poverty,” in Converts and Conversion to and from Judaism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Jewish Culture and Contexts Series), forthcoming.
- “The Toledot Yeshu and the Jewish-Christian Controversy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon,” in Toledot Yeshu Reconsidered, ed. Peter Schaefer et al. (Berlin: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 297-309.
- “Christian Kings and Jewish Conversion in the Medieval Crown of Aragon,” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 3 (2011): 27-39.
- “Jewish Women and Apostasy in the Medieval Crown of Aragon, c.1300-1391,” Jewish History 24.1 (2010), 7-32.
REVIEWS
- Review of Robin Vose, Dominicans, Muslims, and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Cambridge, 2009), in Sefarad 70 (2010): 512-14.
- Review of Nina Caputo, Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, and Messianism (Notre Dame, IN, 2008), in The Medieval Review, August 2008.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
- "Preaching to the Converted: Catechizing the Converts of 1391," article in preparation.
AWARDS
- Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Fellowship
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
- Fulbright Scholarship to Spain
- Richard Hofstadter Fellowship
- Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- American Historical Association
- Association for Jewish Studies
- Medieval Academy of America
- Phi Beta Kappa
- Society of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
